Second Planetskool Soul Event – with dinosaurs

11/3/2013 – As we recently reported, Indian entrepreneur and chess player Suneet Mausil ran an event that brought kids with different backgrounds and privileges to cooperate in a simultaneous match against him. In a second follow-up event, staged amongst roaring dinosaurs in a theme park, Suneet introduced a new element: teach kid on the spot to play chess, and then let them cooperate in three-player groups. Again: inspirational and certainly worth emulating.

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Second Planetskool Soul Event

By Suneet S. Mausil

The second edition was conducted on 24th October 2013. This time the experiment
had multiple changes in it. First, there will be three students sitting
on each board, one from a University Chess team, one from Chess teams from
multiple schools and one kid from underprivileged section, who knows little
about chess. Second, they have to teach board notation, pieces motions and
general rules to the non-chess playing kids within the duration of the simul.
So that the kids can build confidence that it’s not difficult to learn
this game and they can do it very fast.

Events can act as a landmark as well as a booster for a process to execute
a concept. In Planetskool concept we are trying to rethink and replan how
we educate all our planet’s children and how they can be smart, connected
and be responsible enough to allow sustainable and equal growth of all humanity.
The challenge is to figure out a way to bootstrap such concepts so that
it sustains and grows by itself. Soul Events, Conclaves and Educational
Initiatives are what constitute Planetskool’s events so far. And what
perfect season to conduct a Soul Event just near the start of World Chess
Championship!

For any non-chess player this might look like an incomplete exercise,
aimed at promoting one game. Now we know that it’s not just any game.
Chess is highly related to academic streams, scientific thinking and it
gives a complete exercise to not on mental development but also psychological
development. The chess for schools is a brilliant initiative for same reasons.
I remember writing this
small article around 15 years ago, with inspiration from multiple sources
which I can’t recall now. For kids who are from underprivileged sections
here in India, it is very important to keep them engaged in good activities.
The distractions and dangers they can get exposed to can be very destructive
for them and for society around them. And what better option than to make
them spend time playing chess and stay away from distractions. This might
give way to scientific temper and inceptions of dreams to do better than
what their circumstances offer them. Once they have the will, Planetskool
concept will try to ensure that they find a way as well.

The second edition was held in city of Sonipat (near New Delhi). Sonipat
is where I grew up and played
most of my chess. At present the main development center of Technovite
Lab is also located here. Therefore this is my best chance to try and create
a sustainable pilot ecosystem of Planetskool and its events, where kids
keep on learning and cooperating regularly.

Participating in the 50 board simul against me this time were…

50 students from

DCRUST University Chess Team and Players. DCRUST
University is a reputed technical University with more than 40 colleges
affiliated and 275 acres of campus. It’s where I completed my engineering
in 2003 and also founded a Technical Festival ‘Technova’ and
‘Chaturangam Chess Club’, both of which are now integral annual
part of University culture till date. Chess is very popular in campus
and associated colleges now, with multiple events taking place often.
50 chess players from the official University chess team and enthusiastic
players put their hand up for this event and for teaching chess to kids.

+ 50 students from

DAV M Public School Sonipat- Chess Team (website)

Jankidas Public School - Chess Team (website)

Hindu Vidya Peeth - Chess Team (website)

Springbird Public School - Chess Team (website)

Sonipat is actually famous for wrestling, with Olympic wrestling medal
winners, Sushil
Kumar, Yogeshwar
Dutt, being from this city.

Though chess has been part of the city culture too. All of the above schools
are from Sonipat and have strong chess team. Many former students and
chess players from these schools went on to join DCRUST for higher studies,
me being one of them. Lot of credit goes to the Sonipat district chess
association, which was started by bunch of chess lovers back in 1995.
I being a former multiple time champion of both the district and the university
had immense support from all quarters for this event, for which I am very
thankful.

+ 50 students from

Savera - Education Initiative for the underprivileged by DCRUST Students
– Youtube

Students teaches children of construction workers, and poor localities
nearby, filling up the hope of education for them. Many students gets
associated with SAVERA each year and its helping a lot of needy kids.
This is a brilliant and continuous initiative by the students which got
supported by University and is granted decent space and infrastructure
now.

Evening English, maths and now chess classes for underprivileged girls
started at Technovite Lab’s office premises. Some kids who come
to us have never been to a school. Those who go to some school also have
limited resources, both personally and limited school facilities. We are
trying to understand the problem hands on and hopefully will device a
bootstrapping mechanism to remove this gap of resources and reach to education.

Venue

The venue is a three star theme water park and resort Jurasik
Park. These guys take the cream of the event’s budget, though
it’s all worth it as it carries a remembrance factor with it. This
helps in putting an everlasting impression of the kids with better hope
of the continuation of the passion generated during the event. So this time
it was a prehistoric theme park based in the city, which actually is very
popular for visitors from the national capital New Delhi as well, which
is 30 kms away.

The setup

The event started around 10 a.m., with all the children from different
schools and different backgrounds came to the same venue, sat on same table,
to fight against their common opponent. What changed was introduction of
a third member, who will act more as a mentor than a peer. This is the role
I gave to my super juniors from DCRUST University. Their entire chess team
and enthusiasts from various colleges under the university as well as the
main campus, came together for this event. This also involved the students
who teaches the SAVERA kids in the University. It was a very proud feeling
for me to see my juniors getting involved in good things in large number.
Their enthusiasm is visible in the videos as well as in the result of the
entire exercise, where all the kids could learn basics of chess by end of
the simul.

The first challenge for the students of University and School Chess teams
was to teach the kid from SAVERA or VidyaShanti about chess basics, and
second of course was to win the game. Each challenge carried a prize of
a chess board with it. Though eventually 100 chessboards were to be given
to kids, but it wasn’t announced to keep the competitive spirit up.

To merge the music with the play, the party in Jurasik Park started during
the games, and anyone who could win and teach the kid early could enjoy
the poolside DJ. Though to my great happiness kids were totally interested
in chess and were not bothered by the giant dinosaurs and the water park
around them! The desire to learn, desire to teach and desire to win overcame
the charm of partying.

The level of play was quite decent as most players had already played
in many national level school and university chess competitions and were
getting chess coaching in school as well. This is the trend which we are
trying to introduce to all kids regardless of background and privileges.

All games were well competed but the event was not about winning or losing,
it was about learning and showing new ways, with which kids without access
to many privileges can still learn. The following display of how the mentors
from University and peers from different schools came together to teach
the underprivileged kids chess, shows what shape education can take in future,
and what the power of bringing kids together can be. These pictures and
video shows how remarkable learning can be if we put in a little imagination.

The peer-mentor network at work (growls in
the background are dinosaurs!)

Can’t find a chair, the lap is here,
but focus on chess and not the pool!

That’s the queen! School kids were also
regular chess players and some were even
better than the University players. This made the overall exchange very
engaging.

The kids were very excited about this event
and more kids arrived than planned.
But all were accommodated by mentors like him who were keen to teach as
many as they can.

Teaching the basics was quite a challenge for
a 2-3 hour window, but the mentors did well

She studies English and computer science under
the VidyaShanti initiative, and I was
amazed to see she learnt complete notation in her first introduction to
chess in this event

The guiding hand

The future Anands. All they need is exposure
and encouragement

In the end I lost two games, drew two and rest went in the inspiration
mail box of the kids with work hard and do better message attached. Everyone
is a winner in such events. For proof most kids learnt and retained chess
rules and notations during those three hours.

Just an indication of how good a work the students of DCRUST are doing
at SAVERA. The ‘strict’ elder mentor is showered with love by
kids, who are generally look scared and honoring every instruction of her.
In reality they confide in her and other volunteers.

DCRUST University chess team and kids of SAVERA

Students of DAV M Public School. I am an Alumnus
of DAV as well

The closing of the event with special wishes
for a special person, Anand Viswanathan!

Overall the event went very well with the kids, and they all retained it
well. I visited the participant schools after the event, on a promotional
tour for World Champion Viswanathan Anand. All students were very aware
and excited about the World Championship and wished that Anand retains title
in style.

For the event that generates so much good energy, it’s a challenge
to make it self-sustaining. One way to bootstrap this event is maybe to
start a promotional chess theme similar to this by chess bodies and players
around the world. Now, I am a chess nobody. But if we have chess GMs sparing
three hours for similar event, wherever they travel to, we will have a chess
board in hands of the kids who desperately need to be busy with good things
to keep them away from bad ones. If you remove the venue and party costs,
all it takes is chess boards to be donated and time being spent. A chess
board is not just cloth and plastic, it is a resource capable of carrying
hope and dreams with it. So you can make each of your travel count more
than it does, not only to you but for many others. Travel should be as much
about discovering locals as discovering locations, and what better way to
gel with the locals than a chess gifting simul for a visiting GM!? Well,
you can say same thing has been happening as well, as Carlsen played a simul
with Chennai kids recently. Therefore adding a small twist to it and involving
kids who are not exposed to chess, by adding 1-2 more kids per board will
do far better promotion for the game. I will try to do this again while
visiting Chennai as a live spectator at World Chess Championship.

Follow up by Technovite Lab

On 15th August 2013, we started VidyaShanti (‘Vidya’ means
knowledge, ‘Shanti’ means Peace) initiative in our premises,
where underprivileged students come and take free evening classes. We also
conduct a lot of technical activities for engineering college students,
and now will start combined science and engineering projects involving schools
students and underprivileged students combined. This will happen in combination
of our R&D Unit at the DCRUST University campus, which was recently
incepted and inaugurated.

When good energy of various people come together a lot of people get influenced
and benefitted. Sh HS Chahal, Vice Chancellor of DCRUST Murthal and MDU
Rohtak Universities, Dr Pawan Dahiya, DCRUST Murthal and many faculty members
of the University are behind starting many initiatives in DCRUST including
support for SAVERA and R&D Unit of Technovite Lab in DCRUST campus.
Already many technical projects have been initiated and many pure fundamental
research projects are being undertaken by Technovite Lab. This now will
extend to SAVERA kids, giving them exposure of career and passion of an
engineer at an early age. This Soul event I hope is just the beginning of
cooperation, which started with chess and will continue to explore frontiers
of general education, science and engineering.

They know it was an important day and they know that they are very important
for everyone. The problem of disconnect among children is like a dinosaur,
and we have to ensure that it goes extinct.

Previous ChessBase reports

About the author

Suneet S Mausil is CEO of Technovite
Lab, and is focused on software R&D and education. He is totally
invested in Planetskool, an under construction initiative which aims at
bringing kids closer and helping them learn better. For anyone who wishes
to know more about Planetskool, contribute ideas, please be in touch through
our facebook pages.

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